LSU punter Brad Wing has become an unlikely major weapon

LSU punter Brad Wing took his seat inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Friday to answer questions that he has been answering all season, with his mouth, with his foot. Wing, the first All-American Australian to play in college football’s national championship game, is doing his best to take it all in stride, the chills of being part of Tiger Stadium, the journey to 13-0, and beyond.

When McGaughey had his first look at Wing handling the punting chores at Parkway Baptist High School in Baton Rouge, he told Miles it was “like walking into a garage sale and seeing a Picasso sitting in the corner, all by itself. You want to run over and grab it.”

It was Wing’s precise punting, not necessarily his length or his hang time, that caught McGaughey’s eye.

“It all came from Brad growing up playing Australian Rules Football,” McGaughey said. “You watched, and it was like he could put the ball anywhere he wanted. With no effort. It was an incredible sight. The finesse he had was off the charts.”

In time, McGaughey was introduced to a number of weapons the young man from Melbourne had in his arsenal.

We’re talking about weapons that can affect field position in American football, such as the “torpedo,” the “banana,” the “floater” and the “mongrel.”

McGaughey remembered a particular “banana” launched by Wing: “It made a U-turn around a goalpost.”

Wing began applying foot to ball at age 5, in the company of his brother, sending the rounder Australian football between lampposts in the neighborhood.

LSU football video: Punter Brad Wing on his kicking skillsLSU punter Brad Wing talked about the pride he takes in the placement and accuracy of his kicks and what makes the Tigers the best special teams unit in the country. The Tigers will face No. 2 Alabama in the BCS championship game Monday night at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

“Looking back,” he said, “I guess the best break I got was being cut by the Sandringham Dragons when I wanted to play professional football. The running part got to me.”

All of which led Brad, thanks to family friends in Baton Rouge, winding up as a senior at Parkview Baptist.

It wasn’t long before he was “shaking hands with the man in the baseball cap,” who, he was told, was “Coach Miles.”

“I can’t say what Brad has done has been a surprise,” Miles said. “You watch him in practice, and that’s what he does under pressure. To him, it’s almost routine. And that comes from loving what you do.”

In the 9-6 victory over Alabama, the Tigers downed four of Wing’s six punts inside the 20, one of them a “drop punt” that rolled out of bounds at the 5-yard line. Bama’s return yardage was zero.

In the fourth quarter, he boomed a 73-yarder that became a crucial field-position changer in a tie game.

“Brad’s contribution has been enormous,” Miles said. “No one appreciates what he has done more than the defense, who enjoy seeing the other guys backed up. When he was flagged on that fake punt he returned for a touchdown, he released the mistake.”